In his five decades of coaching high school football, Joe Policastro says he never saw a performance quite like the one turned in by Nate Smith — the brother of former Rutgers standout and current Baltimore Ravens tight end L.J. Smith.

Smith accounted for all but one of his team’s points in Highland Park’s 44-21 victory over Middlesex Friday night in Greater Middlesex Conference action. He returned an interception 45 yards for a score (with one shoe partially untied and while grossly out of position), kicked three PATs, ran for one two-point conversion and threw for another (both conversions were improvised off botched snaps).

As if his offensive exploits weren’t enough, Smith recorded 11 tackles from his defensive end position, five for losses.

Smith, who is drawing interest from Rutgers among other schools, has already amassed 680 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground for the Owls (2-1) this season.

“”It was the best performance I’ve seen in my 57 years of watching high school football,” said Joe Policastro, the current assistant and former long-time Highland Park head football coach, who has been affiliated with the Owls since the late 1950’s as an All-State quarterback and who coached the likes of former Rutgers running back Bruce Presley (1992-95) and All-America quarterback Rich Policastro (1968-69).

[1] Read all about Smith’s performance for the ages in MyCentralJersey.com’s Middlesex County high school football blog, written by Greg Tufaro.: http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/tufaro/2009/09/27/nate-smith-a-performance-for-the-ages/#more-1081